On Tang Taizong's Literary Thinking

There have been unfair comments on Tang Taizong in literary histroy in past years. This paper expounds briefly Tang Taizong's literary thinking. We hold the opinion that Tang Taizong attached importance not only to the political and instructive function of literature, but also to its artistic characteristics. Tang Taizong advocated learning from the past, expostulation, elegance, straightforwardness and the combination of the freshness and beauty in the south and the loyalty and masculinity in the north. His thinking had significant impact on the literature of early Tang dynasty, and is, therefore, worth reexamining and reevaluating.